Performance Comparison of 3-D Printed Photoacoustic Gas Sensors and a Commercial Quartz Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectrometer

This article presents a comparison of photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) gas sensors manufactured using different 3-D printers. The sensors have been designed with varying resonator diameters, 1 and 2 mm, and lengths, 12.34 and 30 mm, and using two different microphones, an electret microphone and a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) microphone. The comparison showed little variation in sensor performance based on printer type or geometry. However, the MEMS microphone-based sensors showed a factor of 2–3 improved normalized noise equivalent absorption (NNEA) performance compared to sensors using the electret microphones. A commercial quartz enhanced photoacoustic sensor was additionally tested and also showed a factor of 2–3 poorer NNEA performance compared to the MEMS-based, 3-D printed photoacoustic sensors. Finally, a discussion is provided on the performance of the 3-D printed cells used in this work and previous 3-D printed PAS sensors.